Awkward! Renowned US civil rights campaigner Jesse Jackson might want to check the guest list next time he accepts a dinner invitation overseas, after finding himself breaking bread with French nationalist Jean-Marie Le Pen in Paris this week.

At about 6:10pm on this day in 1968, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was shot dead on a motel balcony in Memphis. pic.twitter.com/ycuCNYJs0S

“Keep Hope Alive” was a slogan used by Jackson during his unsuccessful bid for presidency in 1988.

The Baptist minister, who was in France to commemorate the abolition of slavery, voiced “disgust” following the encounter on Wednesday and said he found Le Pen’s views “repulsive.”

“I did not know him, I’ve never met with him before, and I find his ideas xenophobic and repulsive,” the civil rights leader told AFP in an attempt to explain the bizarre encounter, which took place at a Moroccan restaurant.

Le Pen, co-founder of the National Front party and Donald Trump supporter, has a long history of controversial views and racist statements.

He was fined by a court for inciting hatred against Muslims by saying they would take over France due to their growing population - and frequently complains that French national football team has too many non-white players.